Organizations constantly struggle to reduce the cost of their operations, while at the same time increase the amount of operations being performed. For example, businesses that sell products and/or services struggle to reduce the cost of providing their products and/or services while at the same time increasing the amount of products and/or services that they provide. One way of addressing this struggle is through the use of computer systems, which play a significant, if not central, role in the operations of many organizations. For instance, many businesses sell and/or promote various products and services using electronic environments, such as may utilize Internet-based technologies. Additionally, accounting, order processing, human resources, and other operations are often performed utilizing computer systems in order to optimize efficiency and effectiveness. Typically, the use of computer systems in an organization's operations involves a significant investment in software and/or hardware. When making these investments, organizations anticipate not only their current needs, but also their future needs in order to avoid system failures that may cause a loss of business through lost opportunity and adverse public opinion.
Working against organizations is the ever changing demand on systems. Not only may the demand on systems gradually increase over time as business grows, but system demand may fluctuate significantly over periods of time. For example, servers for an operator of an electronic marketplace may experience large peak traffic during some periods of the year, such as during the winter holiday season, and small amounts of traffic at other times. Hardware is often deployed by guessing what the future will be and trying to make sure there is enough capacity to meet those needs. When faced with these challenges, organizations often err on the side of having too many resources rather than not having enough. The resulting excess capacity is expensive and costly to maintain, and typically requires a significant capital expenditure up front that will not be quickly recovered due to the limited use.